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NEW YORK—The jobless rate in New York has reached its highest level in almost 15 years, as 49,300 people lost their jobs last month, the State Labor Department reported last week. The state’s unemployment rate jumped to 7.0 percent in December, the highest figure recorded in New York since 1994. Over 671,000 New Yorkers were unemployed in December, an increase of 229,000 (52 percent) from December of 2007.
The national recession began in December 2007 and since then New York State has lost 120,600 private sector jobs.
Among those who joined the ranks of unemployed last year was Michael Palermo, originally from the Philippines who was here in the US on an H1-B visa. He was laid off from his work around the second week of December.
"I have been exploring since last month, looking for jobs that fit me. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find one these days. I’ll give myself a couple more months and if nothing else happens, I might have to go back to Manila," he shared.
Palermo belongs to a growing list of New York residents who have been out of a job since last year.
"The severity of the current recession in New York State is underscored by the labor market statistics released today. In just the last three months, the state has lost more than 100,000 private sector jobs, including 49,300 in December 2008. This is the steepest one-month drop since October 2001 in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks," said Peter A. Neenan, Ph.D., director of the Division of Research and Statistics.
New York’s 7.0 percent unemployment rate last month was up from November’s revised level of 6.0 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in December and 6.8 percent in November 2008.
Both the one-month unemployment increase of 1.0 percent and the 229,000 12-month increase in the unemployed count are all-time highs in the 32-year official Labor Department series.
"While New York State lagged the nation in entering the recession, we are catching up with a vengeance," said James Parrott, Deputy Director and Chief Economist of the Fiscal Policy Institute in a statement. "New York City’s unemployment rate also surged in December to 7.4 percent from 6.3 percent in November, putting the city’s rate higher than the national unemployment rate."
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